Pro Tour-New York 2000 Round 6 Feature Match

by Randy Buehler

Marc Hernandez and Adrian Sullivan showed off two of the funkiest decks in the field during the 6th round of feature matches. Hernandez ran a blue/white Cowardice deck with Jolting Merfolk and Defender en-Vec as easy ways to target his opponent's creatures and thus unsummon them. Once any of his faders started to run out of fading counters he would just have it target itself so he could recast it with a fresh complement of counters. Sullivan had a controllish black/green deck with all kinds of teched out combos, including Death Pit Offering, Natural Affinity, Massacre, Saproling Burst, Forced march, and Divining Witch to set up the tricks.

Unfortunately for Adrian, he has no real way to remove an enchantment from the table. When Hernandez followed up his turn 4 Defender en-Vec with a turn 5 Cowardice, Sullivan was in trouble. He tried playing out more creatures than Marc could bounce, but once he built up to 3 creatures a turn, Marc swept the board with a Wave of Reckoning. Sullivan did manage to kill all Marc's lands with Massacre/Natural Affinity while his 3 Death Pit Offerings kept his own land alive, but he couldn't press his advantage because Marc's Teeth of Ramos allows him to replay his Defender on the next turn. Cowardice plus Defender allowed Marc to bounce 3 creatures per turn plus recurse his Defender. Eventually, he found a second Defender and was able to attack for 2 per turn. Adrian played a number of turns where he knew the game has essentially already been decided because he just wanted to see more cards so he'd know what to play around in game 2.

Adrian played an early Divining Witch and used it to Consult for land twice. Those 2 consults removed all his Natural Affinities from his deck. When Hernandez played a Cowardice, things once again looked grim. Adrian decided to consult for one of his last 2 copies of Reverent Silence, but he lost them both in the top 6 cards and thus decked himself. He didn't seem too distraught, though, since both players sat down with 2-3 records and knew thedn't make day 2 even if they won the last two rounds. There were just having fun, playing magic. True ...